BAFFLED fans have hit out following the postponement of Oxford United’s money-spinning Boxing Day clash with Rushden & Diamonds.

Many of the expected 10,000 crowd had already set off for the Kassam Stadium, or even arrived, when the game was called off at about 1.20pm because parts of the pitch were frozen.

Among them were members of the Giallo Esercito supporters’ group, who got to the ground at 10.30am to place coloured cards on every seat in the Oxford Mail Stand for fans to hold up.

Zac Knowles, 16, from Middle Barton, said: “When we got there I think they had just taken the covers off and the youth team were running up and down to break up the ice.

“It looked perfectly playable from where we were in the stand.

“We got a text from the club’s SMS service saying there would be a pitch inspection at 12.30pm, but we carried on laying out the cards because it didn’t look like it would be called off.

“At about 1.30pm a steward came up to us and said the game was off. We couldn’t believe it, we thought he was joking.”

By that time Zac and his friends had attached about 2,500 cards to individual seats with sticky tape.

He said: “We tried to salvage as much as we could, but a lot of them ripped as we took them off.

“We’ve still got some left over but it has cost us about £100 in materials.”

Bradley Fisher, 15, from Stanton Harcourt, was another of the fans in the ground when the game was called off. He said: “I reckon it could have been played. The pitch looked fine.”

Speaking to the Oxford Mail later that afternoon, Derek Young, from Chinnor, said: “It's very disappointing. Our tickets were a Christmas present to us from our son. If there’d been under-soil heating, this wouldn’t have happened.

“It’s pathetic in this day and age.”

U’s fan Neil Penford, from Littlemore, said: “It's bizarre.

“I’d walked from Littlemore and was looking at all the front and back gardens of the houses as I did so, nothing was frozen.”

“I think the club have lost a lot of goodwill.”

Fan Michele De Martino, who flew over from Italy for the match, said: “For it to be called off at the last minute is ridiculous.

“If they’d called it off at 9am that would have been something, but there are going to be so many people who have travelled a long way.”

Last night U’s chairman Kelvin Thomas promised that fans unable to attend the rescheduled game would get refunds.

He added: “The club is so disappointed. This is a game we were all looking forward to and for it not to go ahead is shocking to say the least.

“I am very sorry if people feel let down.”